Basketball is one of the most popular sports in the United States. The popularity of basketball is so widespread, it is even played in swimming pools. There are a number of basketball goals in the prior art that are designed for use with swimming pools. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,093 to Roark, Jr. provides for a poolside basketball goal that is anchored more than three feet away from the pool. U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,545 to Grable discloses a portable basketball goal that is placed on the pool deck of a swimming pool. U.S. Pat. No. 4,307,887 to Weiss and U.S. Pat. No. 5,149,086 to Ziff disclose basketball goals that are used for above-ground pools. U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,599 to Raymond et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,973,054 to Metrosky disclose basketball goals that are attached to a swimming pool diving board.
While the above-mentioned basketball goals can be used in conjunction with a swimming pool, none of the prior art references provides for an easily transportable, lightweight, basketball goal that firmly attaches to an in-ground swimming pool in a manner that allows the basketball to come off of the goal with the same movement as a conventional basketball goal. The present invention is for in-ground swimming pools, and can be easily attached to the existing volleyball or basketball sleeve on the pool deck of the swimming pool. The present invention can also be used with a weighted ballast, instead of attached to the above mentioned sleeves. The present invention overcomes the problems of the prior art by being able to firmly, yet easily attach to the side of an in-ground swimming pool in a manner that allows for slam dunks and for the ball to bounce off the goal in a manner that is similar to a conventional basketball goal. The present invention hangs low over the swimming pool to allow for slam dunks to be easily made. The basketball goal of the present invention attaches to the pool deck firmly so that the goal has a minimum amount of movement when the basketball bounces off of it, and thus it plays like a conventional basketball goal. Furthermore, the present invention can be used with swimming pools that have a variety of sizes of sleeves, where the sleeves can be set at various distances from the edge of the swimming pool, and the edge of the swimming pool can be of varied thickness.